1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a headliner assembly having a base and a clip operable to facilitate the installation of a headliner assembly to the roof of the vehicle. More specifically, the base aligns the clip so as to be fittingly received by the roof bracket of the roof.
2. Description of Material Art
A headliner forms an interior lining of the roof of an automotive vehicle. Various vehicle accessories such as assist grips, speakers, and sun visors may be attached to the headliner. Some of these accessories, such as the sun visor, are mounted onto the headliner prior to installing the headliner to the roof of the vehicle.
The sun visor includes a visor body adapted to receive a visor rod, and a biasing member. The biasing member is operatively attached to the visor rod so as to urge the visor body between a first and a second position when mounted to the headliner. In the first position an outer edge of the sun visor is substantially engaged with the headliner. In the second position, the sun visor is pivoted downwardly so as to shield the passenger from direct sunlight. To return the sun visor to the first position, the user simply flips the visor towards the headliner and the biasing member urges the visor to engage the headliner. Thus, the biasing member retains the visor against the headliner assembly so that the visor does not pivot downwardly and obscure a portion of the passenger's or driver's view.
The visor may be attached to the headliner by a clip. More specifically, as shown in the prior art figure, the sun visor is attached to an outer surface of the headliner and the visor rod is inserted into a visor rod aperture located at an upper portion of the headliner assembly, adjacent the A-Pillar. The inner surface of the headliner is in communication with the vehicle roof. The clip is attached to the inner surface of the headliner, and an end portion of the visor rod is configured to engage the clip so as to retain the visor to the headliner. As shown in the prior art, the biasing member cause the clip to be misaligned with respect to axis 76. The misaligned clip then becomes misaligned with respect to roof brackets of the vehicle roof, as shown in FIGS. 7, and 8. This misaligned clip requires the worker to exert more force to install the headliner assembly as compared to a headliner assembly where the clips are not misaligned.
As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the biasing member creates a force F0 on the headliner assembly during installation. This force F0 is translated to the end portion of the visor rod and moment M0 is experienced by the clip during engagement of the end portion of the visor rod with the headliner. Moment M0 may cause a portion of the clip to be displaced from the inner surface of the headliner.
The clip includes an inner surface wall defining a cavity configured to fittingly engage an end portion of the visor rod. The cavity is configured to be substantially aligned with the visor rod aperture of the headliner along a first axis 76. Displacement of an end portion of the clip may further cause the cavity of the clip to be misaligned from the first axis 76 by as much as 9 degrees. This misalignment causes the worker to exert a lot of force so as to overcome the misalignment and install the headliner assembly to the roof bracket. It is known that the misalignment may cause the worker to exert as much as 30 to 40 kilogram-force (kgf) in order to overcome the misalignment and install the clip of the sun visor to the roof bracket.
Accordingly, it remains desirable to have a device which facilitates the installation of the headliner assembly to the roof bracket. More specifically, it is desirable to have a base that creates a moment that is equal in magnitude to the moment generated when the visor is installed onto the headliner such that there is no misalignment between the clip and the headliner body. It is further desirable to have a device which creates a moment having magnitude equal to and countering the moment created so as to reduce substantially the current installation forces to about 6 kgf.